


One Last Journey

by wtf



Category: Ylvis
Genre: AU: No wives or kids, Gen, Warning: Slow to Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 07:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1103953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wtf/pseuds/wtf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Surviving hell isn't easy. Bård knows that better than anyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was the middle of November, and it had already started snowing heavily. Bård stood next to the window, watching the pavement outside slowly getting covered with a thin, white blanket that didn’t dissolve immediately into the wet ground. If the weather kept this up, the snow wouldn’t be gone until May at the earliest, the same thing had happened the last spring. The thought of another very likely long winter put him in an even worse mood than it already was. Snow meant soggy shoes and freezing toes, and Bård didn’t care one bit for any of it. 

He frowned and cursed the weather for getting him late for work, again. The weather had caught him by surprise, and he had yet to change the tires on his car. Or, that was what he told himself. In his defense, they had been working a lot lately, and in between long hours at the office and a steadily collapsing relationship with his girlfriend, the weather was relatively far down on his long list of priorities. Marthe used to remind him to do those things but was had recently moved all her stuff out of his apartment. She was most likely already haggling someone else to change their tires, or so Bård presumed by the look of her drastically increased online activity. Last night she had changed her Facebook status from ‘in a relationship’ to ‘single’, for just about anyone to see. Bård knew very well that their relationship was over, but the status confirmed it and sort of sealed the deal for good. He dreaded the moment she would change her status to back to ‘in a relationship' because she would surely get there before he would. Despite everything Bård could easily admit that Marthe was a catch; good looking, smart and funny. Whoever got her in the end would be lucky. 

Sighing, he picked up his phone, deciding to call a taxi. It would be worth it if it meant that he would make it in time and didn't have to listen to his sensible older brother's well-meaning lectures on the dangers of driving without studded tires. Vegard was a safety person. That was only one of many quirks Bård had to endure every day at work, during their breaks and family visits. Vegard was also a talker, easily getting into long rambling speeches on just about anything; not realizing his unwilling audience weren’t sharing his passion for the subject at hand. 

Bård made it into the taxi with relatively dry feet, wondering how he could survive the next few days together with Vegard. They were going to travel to a cabin somewhere far away from Oslo; the details of exactly where it was a bit fuzzy. Vegard had spoken about the route up there in lengths, yet Bård has miraculously managed to zone out during it like he often did. Bård considered that ability an actual form of art he had spent all his life perfecting. 

They were supposed to film a Christmas commercial there, and the producers had picked the spot hoping for a lot of snow to set the scene of the perfect winter wonderland in the background. Watching the snow falling thickly outside the irony was not lost on Bård. The rest of the crew had already been there a few days, getting things ready for the filming and making sure all the ugliest Ugly Christmas sweaters they could dig up were there ready for them. Some were even using the rare opportunity to go snowboarding in the nearby resort during work hours. 

They had all agreed that the cabin was far too small to house all of them for a longer period, so Bård and his brother had silently been excluded from the group going up there early, much to everyone’s relief. Bård knew very well that stress combined with and a lot of people being cramped up in a small space over a few days together brought out the worst in both of them. Both were highly depended on some alone time to function correctly and not to throw what many of the crew chose to call ‘small hissy fits.' The added bonus was that they avoided displaying the impending disaster that was their severe lack of athletic prowess in the hills on a snowboard on a silver platter. The comedy would, of course, have been priceless, but one should only sacrifice oneself for comedy to a certain extent. 

Today was the day that they would finally join the others. Bård groaned, not looking forward to the presumably long drive there together with Vegard. He could already feel a headache starting to develop. They had spent too much time together already trying their best to finish off the commercial as soon as possible. He paid the taxi driver and picked up his things, entering their office building. His brother was already there waiting for him in the lobby, having collected a few needed things the crew had forgotten and left behind. 

Vegard was unsurprisingly there already, having managed and most likely triple checked that they had everything they needed for their little weekend getaway already. The other man looked overly well prepared as always, his curly hair covered by an unfashionable blue knitted hat and his neck wrapped up in a thick scarf. The multiple layers of thick winter clothing made him look even stockier than normal. Bård was a little disappointed in him. While his brother had a girlfriend his brother had not been terribly bad looking, she even forced him to the gym once in a while. By the look of him now Bård saw how very far Vegard had fallen into old habits after they'd broken up years ago.

A collection of bags and a giant suitcase stood by his side which Bård believed were all filled with Christmassy sweaters and things Vegard may have gotten into his head that they might, one some point on their trip, need, no matter how possibility for it was. It was always a little provoking when Vegard did turn out to need the things he brought along, so Bård had learned to keep his mouth shut about it, never liking to be proved wrong. Bård always said that Vegard would’ve done well as an eagle scout. It was a shame he didn't do better in the military than he did.

"How on earth is it possible for you to never be on time?" Vegard asked, struggling with trying to balance all his bags on his suitcase at once, getting ready to leave.

"I had to call a cab, I had to wait for it to show up, traffic was complete mayhem," Bård replied tiredly while shouldering one of the bags that fell to the ground. “Besides, I thought you’d be happy I didn’t drive my car here since the weather turned so suddenly.”

"Well, we better hurry up if we want to be there for dinner, Thu's making her braised pork belly dish," Vegard said impatiently, dragging his little mountain of things behind him towards the parking lot. 

Bård wasted no time catching up, his long legs quickly following his brother to the car. He had to bite his cheek all the way not to mention the apparent reason Vegard had been forced into his old clothes that he knew were a size bigger than they were when he had a healthy relationship with a girl. Bård knew that he too had put on a pound or two extra after his recent breakup. That was another reason he was reluctant to the weekend, the two of them already spent more than enough time together, not only at work. As two bachelors living alone cooking for two seemed more purposeful than eating dinner alone, so they often stayed together eating, usually at his brother’s insistence. Bård knew very well that he preferred to keep his benches clean over cooking, so his older brother often invited himself over, bringing grocery bags and his decent cooking skills, refusing his little brother to wallow in heartbroken self-pity for too long. Bård was left to clean after the two. The arrangement saved them from turning into frozen pizza clichés, but it had also left Bård acing for some time alone. The timing of the ad couldn’t have been worse in Bård’s opinion. 

"Also, I don't buy your car explanation, my car is way older than yours, and you know it!" Vegard panted as he loaded his stuff into the car. The vehicle was an old thing, Vegard didn’t lie, and he had even been trying to sell it for several months without success, for some reason refusing to get a new one before the old one was safely away. Vegard called it being economically responsible. Bård called it being a boring cheapskate. 

"Do you even know where this cabin is?" Bård asked as he put the seatbelt on.

"No, but I finally bought that GPS I’ve been drooling over for months, so it will do its magic and direct us right to it," he answered happily as he pushed his coat in the back seat. “I’ve even updated it with a Christmassy quiz as entertainment, just for this very occasion.”

“Great…” Bård mumbled sourly as Vegard started the car and began driving towards their destination.

The trip took them a long while, and Bård felt like time practically stood still. He felt tired after another sleepless night thinking about Marthe. Vegard's random topics of conversation and the occasional quiz from the GPS didn't exactly help speed things along. Ignoring him made it worse, so Bård just went with it. The little jingle Vegard had recorded to go with the game made him irrationally grumpy. A few weeks ago he would’ve applauded his brother’s efforts. 

Bård couldn’t wait to reach the others and hand Vegard over to them, yelling ‘tag, you’re it!’. 

They drove deeper and deeper into nowhere; other cars were a rare sight. The snow was falling thick and fast, and Bård began worrying if they would ever find that cursed cabin. Vegard’s brilliant new GPS turned out to be not as brilliant as it had taken them to several roads that no longer existed, the mapping being terribly outdated. The good news was that it made Vegard shut up for a while. Bård soon started feeling hungry and ordered his brother to stop at the next gas station where he could buy something to eat. After another hour, they found Bård's general desire in what looked like a practically abandoned area, and he ran inside to get them some food and to get a few minutes well deserved away from his brother.

Bård really was hungry and couldn’t help but moan just a little when he got handed his simple meal. The middle-aged, overweight woman behind the desk stared at him for a long time as he wolfed down the first of his two hot dogs with extra bacon, smearing ketchup all over his face. The cashier was wearing what the ugliest apron he had ever seen. He suspected from the look of it that it might have been made once in the 70’s and worn every day single day ever since. Of course without ever having seen the inside of a washing machine. The woman grinned at him, and he couldn’t help thinking that her looks were quite unattractive. He knew that he was politically incorrect, but couldn’t help himself. It was her very blunt staring that disturbed him the most. Perhaps she recognized him, or maybe there were just that little customers in the area. 

Vegard slowly came inside with a questioning look on his face. “Excuse me?” he asked the obese woman, being ever so polite. “I can’t get the gas pump to work,” he said while shaking his dark curls like a dog, freeing them from melting snow.

If possible, the enormous woman grinned even wider, showing several more of her brownish looking teeth. Bård actually had to look away, afraid his facial expression might reveal his inadvertently mean thoughts about the poor woman in front of them. “Oh dear, that thing has been acting up lately. You just wait here, darling, I’ll get my husband to help you out. It happens all the time,” she said while hurrying to the back of the small store.

Vegard raised his eyebrows, and mouthed a silent “wow” to his brother, gesturing to his front, indicating what he thought of the state of the apron. Bård couldn't hold it; he began laughing. Vegard took one look at the half eaten sausage and raised an accusing finger at Bård’s greasy fingers. “Be careful with those, or else you might just have stared at your next shirt size right there,” Bård shrugged and put the last bite into his mouth and chewed it loudly with his mouth wide open, just to underline that he really couldn’t give a shit. Vegard really shouldn’t be pointing fingers, but Bård managed to keep his mouth shut about it. After all, he probably had to spend the next few days camping in a bunk in the same room as his older brother, and Vegard had a tendency to give people the silent treatment when he got offended. He could sometimes be a bit girly like that. 

The woman ran into the store again, slightly out of breath. "Hubby's getting his tools; it might take a little while," she said, seemingly happy with the situation. She patted her dirty apron and took a long look at Vegard. “You look like you could use some coffee, honey,” she said to him while hurrying to the coffee maker as her belly fat jiggled with her movements. 

“Oh, that’s okay, I really don’t….” Vegard began declining as the woman found him an enormous mug.

“It’s on the house. We don’t exactly get a lot of customers here at this hour,” she said while she filled it up to the brim with the hot beverage and handed it over to him. “It’s the least we can do for you while you wait for the silly pump to work,” she said to him with a too big smile. 

The food had lifted Bård’s mood several notches, so he found it in himself to grin knowingly at Vegard as he watched the other struggle with the bitter drink. Vegard didn’t like coffee, usually ordering hot chocolate instead; something Bård continuously teased him with. They stood there in uncomfortable silence as the woman stared intensely at Vegard as he sipped the bitter drink.

A man came inside, signaling to his wife that the pump crisis was resolved before he vanished in the back. The man was freakishly big, easily taller than even Magnus. He had he broadest shoulders Bård had witnessed. He guessed the tougher life away from the city helped grow people larger. He had to admit to himself that he had never seen a stranger couple in his entire life; they cracked at least his Top Ten list, possibly Top Five. His brother paid the fat woman for the gas (cash only, my dearie) and they took off in their car, laughing at the strange encounter.

 

\------------

 

It was already dark, and it had stopped snowing. The temperature was quickly dropping, and Bård turned up the thermostat. They were slowly approaching what they assumed had to be the mountains where the cabin screamed, guided by Vegard’s useless new GPS. The trees were getting taller and thinner as they drove up the narrow valley. The road was narrow, tight enough to cause them trouble if they met a car coming from the opposite direction. One would have to stop on the side of the road to let the other car pass by. Luckily they seemed to be entirely alone. 

Despite the tricky driving conditions, Bård was enjoying the view. The snow gleamed blue, the pavement glittered with the setting frost and the lake to their left looked almost black in the decreasing daylight. No wonder people believed in mermaids, nixies, and trolls when the landscape could look as magical as it did. It wasn’t often that the pair got to get out of the city anymore. He began thinking that this trip would actually be enjoyable.

“Turn that thing off,” Vegard grunted from beside him, motioning towards the GPS. He was leaning forwards, gripping the wheel with both hands. Bård did as told before he sat back and tried to be as quiet and little distracting as he could.

The road got steeper, and suddenly it went downhill instead of upwards.

“Bård, the breaks aren’t working!” Vegard said, with a slight panic in his voice. He was frowning, his knuckles clenching the wheel. Bård could feel it too; the car kept slipping down the hill despite Vegard’s attempts to slow it down. 

“Just calm down, just let the car ease itself down at the bottom at the hill,” Bård said calmly. “I haven’t seen another car for ages, you won’t hit anyone, we’ll be fine.” Bård frowned. How his easily panicked brother had managed to get himself a pilot license was beyond him. Yes, the driving conditions weren’t ideal, but Vegard had driven like this before, and far worse too, probably. 

"Yeah, I'll do that. Of course," Vegard breathed deeply as he maneuvered the car carefully down the hill. The road was slippery, the advancing night and the dropping temperature having turned the surface of the pavement icy. "This is so strange," he said, perplexed. "The brakes have been working fine the whole day, and suddenly they won't work at all," Vegard said, confused. He tried to drive slower to get full control of the vehicle.

They drove on like that for a while. As it got colder, Vegard got more and more stressed. Bård was about to suggest they stop and check the car when the road got steeper, and a sudden, sharp turn had the car slipping fast down the hill. Vegard had no control over the car, and it was tumbling off the pavement and towards the black lake. They both screamed as the car plunged down the rocky side of the road. The last thing Bård remembered before losing consciousness was a loud splash and the sight of water surrounding them.


	2. Prologue 2

He woke to the sound of trickling water.

 

His body was aching everywhere.

 

Blurred vision

 

_Trickling water_

 

His head felt like it was going to explode.

 

Shards of glass were stuck in his skin.

 

Tilted car

 

Airbag holding him in place, keeping him from following gravity.

 

_Trickling water_

 

It all came to him; the slippery road, the sharp turn. Breaks not working. Vegard yelling. The lake.

The car tumbling down the ditch towards the lake.

 

The lake.

 

 

_Trickling water_

 

 

Vegard yelling.

 

VEGARD

 

\-----------------

 

Bård slowly turned his head. He found it difficult because of the inflated airbag holding him tightly in place. Good thing, because the crushed wreck was lying on its left side on the bottom of the lake. Without it, Bård would have fallen face first down to the driver's side of the car. It was pressing against his chest uncomfortably. The seatbelt dug into his left hip. He wanted to get loose.

_Trickling water ._

Bård could hear the water trickling into the broken car. His head hurt. He tried to focus on his breathing. It was hard with the high pressure on his chest. It hurt. Panic tried its best to pull him under its surface again, into its endless abyss. Part of him wanted to slip into it, like it was a warm bath and drown in it. He was so cold. But there was something he needed to do, something he needed to know- 

 

VEGARD!

 

He desperately tried to focus, tried to push the abyss away, and his gaze finally found what he was looking for. His brother lay unmoving on the crushed door of the car, water already covering an inch of his face. His airbags were already deflated. The paleness of his skin terrified Bård, as it was such a contrast next to the almost black looking blood trickling down his face. He wondered shortly if it was the dark abyss leaking out of his brother to reach him too. 

Bård grabbed Vegard's collar, trying to lift the other man up from the dark, cold water, trying to keep him from getting it into his mouth. Or maybe he was already dead. The thought terrified Bård, and it felt like his entire being had been filled with ice-cubes. Losing Vegard would be like losing his second, and probably better, half of himself. Losing him just wasn't an option. Vegard simply couldn't be dead. It felt like he was going to lose control over his breathing again, so he concentrated everything he had on getting his brother out of the water.

The pain was unbearable.

 

Bård dipped his toe in the darkness of his mind and swam into it.

 

It was thick and dark, like swimming in molasses and he gave it up quickly.

 

\------

 

He came to again with considerable difficulties. The rhythmical throbbing in his head was joined by the sound of running water. It haunted him. He suddenly remembered his failed mission.

 

Vegard.

 

Bård opened his eyes and took in every bit of information he could gather. Nothing smelled like it was burning. Good. The windows of the car were broken; the shards were scattered everywhere. Some were lodged in his skin. The wounds were bleeding. The entire car reeked of that coppery scent. 

Bård felt confused, and he couldn't understand where the sound of the trickling water came from. There was no water surrounding him, and he couldn't see where it could be coming from either. If the car had been completely submerged, he assumed they'd both be dead by now. The crushed car had stopped its journey at the shallow part of the lake, he figured.

 

Vegard!

 

Bård quickly turned to see his brother still lying with his face halfway submerged in the black water. The water level had definitely increased. Bård took hold of Vegard’s collar again, trying to drag the other up and hold him against his chest. His grip slipped, there was no strength left in his fingers and Vegard slumped against what was left of the wrecked car-door. Bård grimaced, the pain almost overwhelming him, taking away his feeble grasp on consciousness again. Darkness surrounded the periphery of his vision, threatening to cover his entire world with foul, thick emptiness. Bård swallowed what little he had of saliva and fought it with all his might.

It worked; he grabbed hold of his brother's curls, holding his head above the rising water. The pain was almost too much, and Bård gritted his teeth, concentrating on his one single, important task. He failed. The hair wasn’t substantial enough for him to hold onto. The curls slipped away from his limp grip. Vegard's head hit the water with a splash, face down.

Bård groaned in frustration, realizing he should try a different approach. He took hold of the airbag, pushing it back. He attempted to rock his upper body, trying to see if the car would move with him. It did. He swayed left, and then right. Left and right. Left and right. The car was moving with him, but it wouldn't tilt back to its purposed position like he wanted it to. Left and right. Left and right.  
He feared it would tilt to the left instead of right, so that the car would end up on its roof, not on its wheels. But at least, it would get his brother’s face out of the water. Bård tried to put more force into each swing to the right.

The pain was making his stomach twist and turn.

The thick grey fog almost overtook his vision again, attacking it from the periphery. Bård fought it hard and won the battle. Why wouldn't the car tip back over?

He took a look at his surroundings, and could only pray his constant rocking would eventually do the trick. It didn't. They needed help, fast. But help seemingly wasn't coming anytime soon. They were, after all, in the middle of nowhere. They might as well have been dying on the moon; no one would ever reach them in time. 

Bård had never been a religious person; he had regularly made fun of people believing in any supernatural beings, it being God, aliens or Santa Claus. But right then, Bård was willing to pray to any of them if that meant getting any kind of help.

Dear Santa Claus, Bård silently began praying. He realized he might be hysterical, but he didn’t care. 

He grabbed hold of Vegard again and concentrated on figuring out how he would get them both out of this mess, without the help from any children's story characters or other deities. His head was pounding, and he took a look at his brother again to see how hurt he was.

 

Oh

 

That explained everything.

A dig branch had penetrated the car on the driver's side, and that was what kept the damaged vehicle positioned on its side. It also penetrated Vegard's right leg.

_Trickling blood_

Bård feels his nausea worsening, and he quickly lost the content of his stomach. Most of it ended up covering Vegard. Coughing, he felt the panic rising, making him loose control. He blacked out again.

 

\--------------

 

He woke up to the sound of people yelling. It took him some time to rearrange his thoughts enough to understand the implications. They were finally getting help.

The loud noises made his head hurt even worse. Bård grabbed hold of Vegard's collar again; the only thing getting him through the pain was the sound of people making their way down the steep ditch. The yellow light of a flashlight hit his face, and he could make out to big shadows standing outside the car looking in. Bård couldn't hold it anymore; he had never felt so relieved in his life. Someone else would take care of everything. His grip on his brother slipped again as he fainted once more.

 

\----------------

 

The cold was slowly creeping deeper into his bones. He was lying on something hard and wet. Cold pavement. 

It had stopped snowing, and he took in the beauty of the stars above him. They were a rare sight in the busy streetlight of the city. He could see Venus. He fell into the memory when they were sitting alone on the porch in Angola and Vegard had pointed out for where the planets in their solar system were. Bård had thought they were stars. 

They had gotten help. He was on wet pavement, where there were no broken car, no water and no distinct coppery smell. Everything was going to be all right. Laughter bubbled up from deep inside him; he didn’t know where from. 

 

Vegard

 

He turned his head to see where his brother was, his chest suddenly filled with the chest-tightening panic again. Was Vegard dead? Bård hadn't seen him breathing in the car, or felt for a pulse. Did he drown before their rescuers could get them both out? 

He turned his head towards the ditch where he could make out the wreck and found what he was searching for. Vegard was lying on his back just a few feet away from him, with the offending piece of the tree still stuck in his leg. Someone had cut him loose. Someone was standing over him, pounding on his chest. Someone else was leaning over his face, putting their mouth to his. Someone was trying to save his brother's life.

 

No…

 

His chest tightened and then he felt no more.


	3. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your kind comments on the two previous chapters.  
> I'm still not a native English speaker, so there will be loads of errors

Bård couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or if he was awake. It was impossible to tell the difference. He confused his nightmares with the present, and the past felt just like his daydreams. The future seemed to be forgotten. Or maybe it was the other way around? Had he forgotten his future?

It was like the world was slowly fading away, and a new, pale version of the old was ruling in its absence. It was misty, and grey, and filled with strange sensations that didn’t make any sense to him. Pain was his constant companion; throbbing its way deep into the blurriness, making little groans of discomfort escape his dry lips. Worst of all was the nothingness that would swallow him whole from time to time, dragging him down, making him feel so very heavy and empty. It took everything he had just to exist. 

A thin veil of silicone flapped in the wind of his mind, shielding him from the terrible truth. It was his very own sanctuary. 

_He was standing on a small stage; he had just finished performing his very first show. He was seventeen, and the audience was cheering wildly. It felt like they were cheering for him, and him alone, and the euphoria he felt was like nothing he had ever felt before. The bright lights were blinding his eyes, but he knew his family was there. Bubbly happiness filled him up from the inside until he was going to burst, and he couldn’t contain himself; he was grinning like a madman. This was what he wanted to do with his life!_

_His entire being hurt, and it felt like he had been crying for a while. Other times it felt like he was floating on a yellow cloud, up and down, together with happiness itself. Everything was so blurred and hazy and confusing._

_The red curtains went down and the show was over. The veil became thinner, more translucent. The utter darkness behind it was visible, seeping into his awareness like the cold on a clear winter’s day._

Closer, closer, closer... 

 

_Bård heard a single gunshot, did he fire it himself?_

_The camera was filming him as he spat out the rest of vomit in the sink. He smiled and giggled at his guests, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. The room was spinning and he decided it was a good idea to have another shot of tequila. It burned down his throat, making its way down to an empty stomach. For all it was worth, it would be one hell of an interesting episode of their show._

_The woman was taking measurements; she was going to make them some new costumes. Her hands ran down his legs, and he winked suggestively at her._

 

The veil wrapped itself around him, folding into him and pressed him out of its soothing calm. Black holes shone through it, tangling around and forcing their way inside him. They shone bright and black at the same time. The darkness grew, and he felt himself being consumed by it. 

The silicone veil disappeared, and he was ready for whatever lay ahead of him. 

 

……………….

 

Bård never noticed when he first became aware of his surroundings. He had no sense of time and had, therefore, no idea about how long he had been out or how long it had been since he had been staring up at the clear starry sky and thought his old life was gone.  
He was lying in a bed that was too small for him, making his long legs fold in an awkward angle. They were stiff, and something was wrapped around his right ankle. _How long had he been there?_ The sheets he was covered in were a pastel green color, and he was clad in a blue striped pajamas. They weren’t his. This wasn’t his bedroom. Where was he? 

A wheeze caught his attention, and he soon found out that he wasn’t alone. A quick glance revealed the most welcome sight Bård could ever have asked for; his brother sleeping in the neighboring bed. Vegard didn’t even look like the Vegard Bård once knew; it was like he had been replaced by a poorly made wax-doll copy of him. His face looked swollen and pale, and he was covered in colorful bruises and small cuts. But Bård couldn’t get over the fact that he was there, right next to him, living and breathing. The relief was enormous, and it was as if the weight of the entire world had been lifted off his shoulders. He could finally breathe easy. He was fine. They were both fine. 

Another shakily drawn breath from the other side if the room shook him out of his relieved train of thought. Bård got up on shaky feet and dragged himself over the floor towards his sleeping brother. The image of a tree impaling Vegard’s right leg came to mind, and he lifted his covers enough to survey the situation. Someone had wrapped the wound in a thick bandage, yet blood had managed to seep out of it and into the bed sheets, staining them rusty red. _He should really be in a hospital,_ Bård thought to himself, because it was obvious that they weren’t in one. 

He remembered the snow and the slippery roads and their saviors shining a flashlight directly into his eyes when they discover him in the car wreck. That must be it; the angels who helped us brought us with them home or someplace warm and safe, and they’re waiting for the weather to calm down before we can get down the mountain safely.

Bård sat down on the floor next to Vegard’s bed, exhausted. He isn’t fairing too good himself either; his head is throbbing like there’s no tomorrow, but at least none of the numerous cuts on his body were bleeding. Some of the larger ones had been patched together with butterfly bandages. Opening his shirt revealed a large burn running diagonally from his right shoulder, over his chest, and down to his left hip. Bård was silently grateful for the stinging pain; without the seatbelt it might as well have been a dead body his saviors dragged out of the lake. 

The room they’re in looks more like a children’s bedroom made in the 70’s more than anything else; the walls were brown with pictures of monkeys and parrots and other kinds of rainforest animals painted in a light beige color. It could have been strangely beautiful if it hadn’t been for the fact that the animals were poorly painted, their features twisted and distorted. The carpet on the floor may once have been white, but time and wear made it difficult to tell for sure. The only light in the room comes from a blinking lamp, as there are no windows that can let daylight enter the small bedroom. 

Bård concentrates about his brother again and continues his examination. Vegard is definitely worse for wear; he’s too warm and small cuts and bruises litter his entire body. His strained breathing is making Bård uncomfortable, it sounds wet and painful. It sounds like he’s still drowning, never being able to properly fill his lungs with much needed oxygen. Bård doesn’t want to think about that. _There may still be water in his lungs,_ his treacherous brain concluded.  
He rises from his position on the floor and tries the door handle. He is surprised to find the door locked, and panic rises quickly inside him again. _Why on earth would anybody help someone only to lock them inside a child’s bedroom?_ Bård’s rational mind searched for a plausible solution for his problem as he tries to calm his breathing down. _They probably did it by mistake,_ he thinks to himself as he takes a few deep breaths before trying the door again. It wouldst budge. _That makes no sense,_ the rational part of his brain answered him. 

“Hello?” he calls into the silence of the room. Nobody answered. “Anyone there?” 

He tries to think of all possible reasons why someone would lock them up in a child’s bedroom, and the one is more far-fetched and unlikely than the other. Somebody had dressed them while they were out, taken care of them, and then locked the door. Wouldn’t it be more practical to give the two of them a chance to give their hosts a sign that they were up and walking, so that they didn’t need to worry about them anymore? 

Bård’s breathing picks up and Vegard’s forced breathing encourages his rising panic. They can’t stay here much longer. He slams his palms against the door, hoping to attract attention to himself. Nothing happens. He tries again and again, his efforts only met with failure and deafening silence. 

He stops and considers his next course of action before he shrugs and slams his shoulder into the door with all his weight. It doesn’t open, and he tries it again, this time with more force. Nothing happens. He tries to run into it, hoping to break it down. Nothing. Is doesn’t even move a millimeter. The only thing he manages to do is hurt his shoulder in the process, adding it to his long list of bodily aches. 

The newfound strength and fury is quickly fading, and Bård sits down on his bed defeated. There was just no way that the two of them had been kidnapped after the car accident, things like that simply don’t happen in Norway. There had to be some other explanation. _Then why did the breaks just suddenly stop working after the stop at the gas station? Someone must have cut them while we were inside,_ he thinks before pushing the uncomfortable thought away. He is too tired to argue with himself. 

Bård lies down and tries to fall asleep, willing the pain in his head to go away. Everything would be explained once he woke up, he was sure of it, or, he was at least hoping for it.

No matter how hard he tired, Sandman just wouldn’t come and bring him along into dreamland. It felt like his head was throbbing in the same pace as his heartbeat, making all his aches and pains feel as one. The throbbing also synchronized with the ragged breathing coming from the other side of the room. 

 

Throb. Throb. Throb. 

Wheeze.

 

Throb. Throb. Throb.

Wheeze.

 

Throb. Throb. Throb.

Wheeze.

 

Bård turned around to his side, pulling his pillow over his head to block out the annoying sound. 

 

Throb. Throb. Throb.

Wheeze.

 

It wasn’t working.. He needed sleep, but it didn’t seem like Vegard was willing to let him have it anytime soon. The noise reminded Bård of a fly bouncing in and out of his hearing range, sometimes zooming almost inside his ear, making it impossible to find any rest at all He groaned in frustration, and turned around on his other side, hoping his hearing was somehow impaired on that ear. 

No such luck. 

 

Wheeze.

Throb. Throb. Throb.

 

_Wheeze._

_Throb._

_Throb._

_Throb._

 

It wasn’t working at all. He grabbed his pillow and went over to his sleeping brother. Frankly, Bård was a little jealous of him, not having to deal with their newfound situation. He lifted Vegard’s upper body up a little and pushed his pillow underneath him. It made him sleep in a reclining position, and Bård hoped it would be enough to ease his breathing enough to stop the ever ending irritating sound.

He fell into his own bed and pulled his covers forcefully over his head as he closed his tired eyes, hoping Vegard would repay him for giving up his pillow by being silent. Bård was exhausted, confused, worried, annoyed and in pain, and all he wanted was to get a few blissful moments of shuteye. The pillow trick seemed to be working at first, and Bård had almost slipped into unconsciousness, ignoring the constant throbbing of his head when it began again. 

 

_No..._

 

Wheeze.

 

Wheeze.

 

_Wheeze._

 

Bård threw his covers off and trampled over to his brother again. He told himself that he now knew what Chinese water-torture felt like, and that he would never forgive his brother if they ever made it out of the ugly bedroom. He lifted Vegard up, pulled out his two pillows and sat down on the bed behind his still sleeping brother. Bård had no idea how he could sleep as heavily as he did, and stared in wonder at the curls underneath his chin as he made himself comfortable, letting Vegard rest against his chest. 

Bård could easily feel how warm Vegard was, and wondered briefly if what he was doing was a smart idea. He wouldn’t want to risk overheating his brother either. He could now not only hear Vegard struggling for every breath, but he could also feel every single one of them. 

His doubt was distinguished after a few minutes as he was rewarded with the fact that his own body heat seemed to ease Vegard’s lungs enough to quiet down the rattling. The warmth of having his brother so close eased his own aces as well, and he finally let the translucent silicone veil wrap itself around him, finally protecting him from the world’s vexations once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism is very much appreciated, so that I can learn how to be a better writer.


	4. Chapter 4

“Bård.”

Something was prodding him in his side. He was warm and felt comfortable with the heavy figure in front of him; he was not at all ready to wake up from his heavy sleep. His mouth was open. The sticky feeling on his chin made him aware that he had been drooling, having slept with his mouth wide open in the sitting position. A tired groan escaped his lips, not ready to join the land of the living just yet.

“Bård! Wake up, you idiot, before I tickle you!” The prodding got more intense and dragged him unwillingly out of the slack drowsiness and into the presence. The hand on his side took a hard grip and squeezed him a couple of times, making Bård squirm uncontrollably, swatting the offending hand away, now fully awake. 

Bård realized that he was still sitting behind Vegard. He had a feeling he had slept for a long time and felt he felt strangely relaxed about being so physically close to his brother, especially since Vegard didn’t seem to mind. Remembering the last time they had slept similar to this was hard. A very cold and badly planned camping trip with their grandparents came to mind. It had been raining heavily, and the tent turned out to be not as waterproof as one would have hoped. Their grandmother had suggested the two boys zip their sleeping bags together to keep warm. They were then old enough to be embarrassed about it, but Bård remembered how quickly the temperature had risen next to Vegard, and how warm his older brother legs had felt beside his own cold toes. He also remembered how Vegard had complained of how his little brother’s too long toenails had scratched up his shins during the night. Bård considered being used as a human pillow his thank you for that night. 

He felt a lot better than before, better rested and a little less achy from what he believed had to be the previous day. Time was hard to keep track of without a clock or a cell-phone. Bård decided that it felt like the morning, but he wasn’t sure at all without access to real daylight. Their phones had probably been taken away together with their clothing and the rest of their other possessions.

“Do you know what time it is?” Vegard asked, lifting his upper body off Bård.

“I don’t know,” Bård answered as lightly as he could as he scooted out of their shared bed. No need to worry Vegard without good reason. For all he knew, there could still be a perfectly good explanation as of why they were locked together in a children’s bedroom. Vegard’s rattling breathing from the day before was still fresh in mind. He swallowed; his mouth and throat were feeling dry from having slept with his mouth open, he may even have snored a little. He could only compare the feeling to the first time he had gotten high when he was nineteen; the cottonmouth feeling had almost left him almost unable to speak that night.

“Where are we?” Vegard asked as he shifted to sit up in a more comfortable position, coughing into his hands.

“I honestly have no clue,” Bård said with a sigh. The tightening feeling in his chest, familiar from before started to increase. 

“What even happened to us? My leg hurts like crazy,” Vegard continued to nag him, clueless of how his probing affected his little brother. 

“I… Don’t know that either,” Bård said as he sat on his bed. He put his head in his hands in frustration.

“What do you know?” Vegard asked, coughing, not picking up on Bård’s dreariness. 

“Not much more than you, to be perfectly honest. What do you remember?” Best be vague, Bård thought to himself.

Vegard frowned as he was concentrating, rubbing his injured leg underneath the covers. He was staring at one of the ugly animals on the walls. “…I was waiting for you. You were late, because of traffic,” he finally answered.

“That’s the last thing you remember?” Bård frowned. He was worried. Bits and pieces were missing from his memory of the day of the crash as well; he guessed that would be normal, but not that much, not by far. A lot of time had gone by since the accident; did that mean that Vegard had gotten a brain injury more severe than a simple concussion? How was he going to explain everything without riling his brother up, worsening the possible injury?

Vegard bit his lip as he nodded. “Yeah, it is. I’ve got flashes here and there like I feel like I remember someone screaming my name, but I don’t know if that’s something my head has just conjured up from what I believe happened or not.”

“Like when you’re looking at a childhood photograph, and you can’t remember if you actually remember that moment or if you’ve just remembered seeing the photo and people talking about it. Then it kind of feels like your imagination did the rest, making up a memory about the photo instead of having a direct memory of the incident?”

Vegard nodded thoughtfully. “Kind of, but it’s different from that too. It’s more like; I don’t know, trippy. I remember thinking I was on a spacecraft at one moment.” He lied down on the mattress, giving into another coughing fit. When it passed, he wiped his hand on the covers. _I’m not climbing into bed with him again, _Bård thought.__

“Oh, all right. Well, we were kind of in a car accident,” Bård said carefully after Vegard was done, trying not to reveal too much, but at the same time, he guessed from the spacecraft comment that Vegard might have figured as much already. Balance was key; he was determined to keep his footing for as long as possible. 

“Kind of? What’s that supposed to mean? Are you all right? And what happened then?” From Vegard’s surprised face Bård quickly understood that he had overestimated his brother’s comprehension of the events. 

“And then what?” Bård asked back, intentionally ignoring Vegard’s many inquiries. How could he answer his brother without knowing the anything at all himself?

“What happened next? Why are we here?” Vegard asked loudly, getting increasingly more upset. It ended with a coughing fit, leaving him panting. Bård waited for it to stop, feeling a bit guilty for being happy that it thankfully gave him time to rethink his paper-thin explanation a bit more through.

Vegard eventually calmed down, and Bård took a good look at him. He was too pale, even when he considered the time of year. Vegard lost his golden summer tan rather quickly, something Bård always silently rejoiced over, as he never could obtain the same glow himself. Vegard’s increasingly darker skin as the weather got warmer was one of the very few physical traits Bård ever got jealous of. Now it was different. The pallor was enhanced by red splotchy cheeks, making his older brother a poor imitation of a birthday clown. It was obvious to Bård that he was beginning to feel tired again, the coughing quickly draining him of all energy he must have collected after having slept more than a few hours. There was no way Bård was going to let him in on his suspicions of the cut breaks or what was happening; that much was certain.

“I don’t know much, to be honest. What I do know is that we drove off the road, falling down a ditch,” Bård said as nonchalantly as he could. “The road was just too slippery because of the weather. Someone helped us out, and then I woke up here, and that’s all I know. So, I do not know all that much more than you do.” Bård didn’t care to mention the lake, the claustrophobic feeling that came with the rising water level or the fact that Vegard’s leg had looked like a hot dog on a stick, ready to be cooked over a merry campfire. Or that Vegard possibly drowned out there. 

“Okay.” Bård could almost see the wheels turn in Vegard’s head as he processed the information, putting two and two together as he rubbed his bad leg. It seemed to Bård that his brother somehow accepted the fact that Bård wasn’t going to let him in on what was going on inside his head.

“You look terrible. You’re blue and black all over. Are you all right?” Vegard finally asked after a long pause.

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine, more or less,” Bård said, perplexed. It was an unexpected turn of events. Bård had thought that his older brother would be furious; demanding to know every piece of information Bård possibly had gathered and would do everything in his power to find a solution, being the big brother Bård always knew. Vegard was always like that, finding solutions to problems that seemed impossible to solve. The stillness in the way Vegard asked his question unsettled him in more ways than one. “I should be asking you that question.”

“I…” Vegard swallowed hard, suppressing another coughing fit. “I’ve been better,” he said with a tight smile. It was obvious that none of them were fine so lying about it would almost be laughable. Bård was glad Vegard at least admitted that he wasn’t in the best of shapes. He would respect his obvious wish of leaving the topic alone, at least for the time being. 

Vegard got paler as they spoke. It might have been Bård’s imagination, but somehow the red dots on Vegard’s cheeks got pronounced, so he decided to take action. Bård signalized his agreement to that he also had seen better days as he got himself comfortable in his bed, hoping Vegard would mirror his actions. People often said that the pair of them was like opposite images, two drops of water mirroring each other. Sometimes they truly were. Bård had noticed it from time to time, but never mentioned it to anyone; that would only have been fuel to the fire. To Bård’s satisfaction, Vegard did lay down, confirming Bård’s suspicions that he was feeling exhausted even after just a few minutes of consciousness. 

“Maybe we’ll know more when we wake up again,” he said, keeping his voice unnaturally light.

Vegard frowned at him, questioning his intentions, but as before he didn’t challenge Bård or tried to argue with his more than a little unreasonable request to leave things alone. After a few moments of obvious internal battle, he got himself more comfortable in his bed as well. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Bård was silently relieved that his brother didn’t seem to be up to any argument. He closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep, evening his breathing out, making them deeper and slower. Bård was a talented pretender and actor, something he often took advantage of. He could fool almost anyone. Vegard wasn’t one of the hardest to trick either, despite having been victim to it more than once. He turned his back to Vegard, preventing his brother from seeing that he was faking it. He even added a little snore here and there. 

When they used to be out on the road together, they would sometimes be forced to share a hotel room together, the arrangers somehow coming to the conclusion that that was okay because they were family. At those times Vegard eagerly told him and the rest of the crew how Bård was such a loud snorer. Bård was sure he wasn’t that bad. There was even little a little film clip of him that proved Vegard’s point, but Bård’s snore was almost out powered by Vegard’s giggling in the background, so Bård concluded that he couldn’t have been that bad. Bård had memorized how the snores sounded if there were sound coming out at both inhale and exhale, and if they came regularly or just at a random interval, ready to use that information against Vegard at an appropriate time of revenge. That time had come. Bård was happy with his performance; he was confident that he managed to act convincingly enough. The devil was in the details; that was their motto after all. 

His plan worked. After only a moment or two, he could hear that Vegard’s ragged breathing got heavy and softer, giving away that he had given in to his increasing fatigue. Bård lay still for a few more minutes before he got up again, making sure Vegard really was sacked out, and not using Bård’s tricks against him. 

He tried to open the door handle again, making as little sound as possible, not at all surprised to still find it locked. It was at least worth a try. Bård felt the frustration building up inside him as he explored the little room. There wasn’t much in it; he felt nausea rise in his throat as he realized what the empty bucket was there for. He sat down, defeated, rubbing his face in his palms and stretching the skin as far as it would go. He was sure that before this was all over, he would have gained several more wrinkles. He stretched his legs too, noticing the alien object around his ankle, he’d completely forgotten all about it in all the chaos in his head. He had been too busy with Vegard to check it and the rest of him properly out. He lifted his blue pajamas pants up on his leg a little, revealing what it was. 

 

Oh God

 

It was something that could under other circumstances resemble a small dog’s collar; only it didn’t look like any dog should wear something like that, ever. Bård swallowed a new bout of nausea as he inspected the thing closer. There was a larger box-like structure on one side, and it gave out a little red light. How could such a small gadget inflict so much fear? It looked like it required a key to open it, but that didn’t stop Bård from trying to get it off. 

 

The little light on the box gave a short green blink. A jolt of electricity ran through his body, making him shake uncontrollably, more out of shock than out of pain. He let go of the collar immediately. Bård ran over to the bucket and lost all content of his stomach. It took several heaves for his gut to settle down. Even then the violent trembling wouldn’t go away. He rose from the floor, shaking, wiping his mouth with his pajama sleeve.

 

This was insane. This was completely bat-shit crazy. Who would do anything like this?

 

Bård calmed his breathing as best as he could, and looked over at Vegard, making sure he hadn’t been disturbed, but battling his egoistic wish that he would wake up and magically solve everything. Vegard had wondrously slept through Bård’s loud retching; Bård had no idea how. He sat down on his bed, desperately trying to calm himself down. He was still shaking, and he felt himself getting closer and closer to another panic attack. The shock hadn’t been as painful as it had been surprising; a warning not to try anything else with it.

There were suddenly loud noises coming from outside the door. Someone was pushing on something heavy, and then Bård heard the sound he had both dreaded and hoped for the entire time they had been there- a key turning in the lock.

He held his breath in anticipation as the door opened, cursing himself for not having made any plans as for what he would do when this moment would come. Should he attack, or should he sit down and wait for the new person to make the next move?

He didn’t have time to make up his mind before the sturdy old door opened. It even creaked a little, fulfilling the cliché. Bård was very surprised to see a boy standing there with a bored look on his face, like finding two strange grown men in his house was the most natural thing in the world to him. They boy could not be more than maybe sixteen years old; he had short, blonde, almost white hair and plenty of pimples and freckles on his face. The beige knitted sweater he wore was too big on his slight frame, making him look even paler and younger than what he probably was. Bård could make out that it had been stitched together badly in places where it once had been torn.

“Breakfast,” the boy said before he turned around and left.

Bård sat there stunned for a moment before he got up and followed the boy on shaky legs. He didn’t bother waking Vegard, not sure which situation he was dealing with yet. Besides, the stranger hadn’t specified that both of them should follow him.

The boy led him through a narrow hallway and into a large kitchen. Bård noted that it was a small bookshelf that had blocked the door to the bedroom as he followed the teenager. The kitchen had seen better days. A round table stood in the middle of the room, and it was filled with plates, cutlery, and plenty of food.

He was not at all surprised to see the large man from the gas station sitting on one end of the table, reading a newspaper. The front page and the date printed under the logo told Bård that it was Sunday, two days after they had left Oslo for the cabin. Two whole days. Bård wondered briefly if someone had begun searching for them yet. They’d had to, right? Two days was a lot. The police only needed 24 hours to report someone missing. That was what they always said in the movies at least. The crew knew they were supposed to join them at the cabin on Friday, after all. Two days. Two days was a lot of time, why hadn’t they been found yet?

The cashier from the gas station stood by the stove cooking food. The smell sizzling bacon hit Bård’s nose, making his mouth water. It felt wonderful, wetting his swollen dry tongue. He only now realized how hungry he was, his stomach churning painfully, reminding him that it was too empty for its liking. He can’t have eaten since he left Oslo. 

“Sit,” the boy said and pointed at a chair. Bård sat down immediately, thinking he had no other choice, and he didn’t want to anger his hosts. The situation felt beyond surreal. Someone had saved them from dying, kept them in a locked room for a few days, electrocuted him and were offering him breakfast like nothing weird was going on at all. He gingerly fiddled with a fork, not sure what to expect next. It all felt very unpredictable.

The other occupants of the kitchen were all dressed, making Bård feel even more inferior as he looked down on his blue pajamas. He also felt a strong need for a decent shower; there was still blood sticking his hair to the side of his head. Even his hair felt greasier than normal.

The boy plucked at his nails, ignoring Bård completely. The man seemed to be content reading, and Bård took the chance to look around. There was a big knife lying next to the man’s plate, looking nothing like something that belonged on a breakfast table. It was just too large for that. Bård didn’t want to think too hard about why it was placed there but decided not to make any sudden movements, just in case. There was no phone in the room as far as he could tell, and the door leading into the next room was closed. The kitchen itself matched the rest of the house; old fashioned and worn, colored in beige, orange and different shades of brown.

The large woman turned, smiling at him. “There you are! We thought you’d never wake up,” she said gleefully. Bård was disturbed beyond words. There was no way they hadn’t heard the spectacle he’d made trying to get out of the room. Why was she pretending not to have noticed him?

“I was beginning to worry about you,” she said gravely, staring him deep in the eyes as she handed him a plate filled to the brim with crispy bacon, eggs and bread. It smelled delicious. 

Bård said nothing; he just sat there with his mouth hanging slightly open, not believing his ears. She turned around again, seemingly not bothered by his silence. “I’m just so glad we got there in time!” she exclaimed as she handed the boy and the balding man their plates. They both dug in eagerly and without any kind of table manners. None of them seemed to care or notice that Vegard wasn’t there with him.

She came back to the table with her own plate of food and started to eat. Bård stared at the strange collection of people, silently hoping he was dreaming. The woman filled their glasses with orange juice, and Bård couldn’t defy the temptation. He took the chance, and took a big glug of the cool liquid, easing his sore throat. It was too sugary; probably a cheap brand, but Bård couldn’t care less. It was the best orange juice he ever had. If they were going to kill him, they could’ve just left them in the car wreck. He would gladly risk the chance of being poisoned if it meant clenching his thirst a little.

“Eat while it’s still hot, boy,” the large man scolded him, acknowledging that Bård was there for the first time. Bård wasn’t going to be told twice while the man still had the big knife lying so innocently next to him, and dug in. It was delicious as it smelled, and he thought to himself that he had never tasted anything quite like it. He had to bend over in pain a little as the food hit the emptiness of his stomach but kept going after a frowning look from the man.

“Why didn’t we get a girl this time? I said I wanted a girl,” the boy said to the woman, his mouth filled with food. 

Bård looked up; eager learn more of why they were here. This time? Had the strange family done this, whatever this was, before?

“Oh, isn’t he good enough?” The woman replied in a too high voice, raising her eyebrows.

“Girls are always better than boys; they know more stuff,” the boy said, looking down on his lap. The big man grunted his agreement from behind the newspaper.

“You don’t know that, maybe this one knows lots of things,” the woman defended herself. “Besides, I think he’s quite handsome,” the woman said, winking at Bård. Bård felt himself go red. Maybe he went white, he couldn’t tell. Compliments of that kind were not unusual, and he usually reacted with confidence and felt flattered. At the bare minimum, he would usually feel amused. This particular lady saying he was handsome was maybe the last thing he had ever hoped for. He felt chills run down his spine.

“Too skinny,” the man said behind a fresh page of the newspaper. Bård felt strangely thankful for the comment.

“Will you help me with my homework later? I have this physics thing I have to turn in tomorrow.” The boy turned to him with a challenging look on his face, like he was daring him to refuse. Bård let his breath out in relief for the change of topic, not realizing he had been holding it in. School had never been Bård’s strong point, but he had managed to get through high school without failing a single class. He knew he could have gotten far better grades if he had ever bothered studying. That was what his teachers always used to say. 

“I…” He swallowed thickly, realizing that the entire family was staring at him. “I can at least give it a try,” he said without much confidence. The boy nodded, seemingly happy with his reply.

Bård took another mouthful of food, thinking through how he could turn this situation into an advantage for them.

“But my brother is way better than what I am in physics,” he said slowly, “He’s a pilot.”

“Oh?” The boy raised an eyebrow. “Does he know anything about Schrödinger?”

Bård shrugged as he eagerly drank the rest of his juice. They once had a teacher named Schroedinger, an old man who smelled like sweat and liked to pat the girls on their backs and shoulders a little too much, but Bård doubted that he was the person Daniel thought of. 

“I don’t know. That’s the guy with the cat in the box, right?” Bård took a chance, not sure who Schrödinger was at all. “Well, my brother Vegard knows all kinds of things, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew all there is to him,” Bård said, hoping the boy would believe his blatant lie. 

“Yup, that’s the one,” the boy nodded.

“Oh.” Bård breathed a little easier. “What’s your name?”

“Daniel.”

“Hi Daniel, my name’s Bård,” he said, feeling a sudden need to introduce himself to the strange family. He felt the stares of the two grownups drilling into him. Cold sweat ran down his back.

“You don’t have a need a name,” the big man said briskly, making Bård physically cower in his seat. He swore he had never been more nervous in his life.

Bård couldn’t help but think his situation was kind of like the Schrodinger’s cat equation. He was in a locked box just like the cat, and his box contained both poison and food. From outside the box, he could be considered to be both dead and alive at the same time.

He only prayed that someone would soon open the lid of his box and let him out before it was too late.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boring chapter. Sorry.

_Could I ever harm another human being, a child, to save my own life?_ Bård mused as he fiddled with the guitar in his lap. He sat on the floor in the bedroom, with the teenager sitting next to him. There were lots of textbooks of different topics lying unused in front of them. Bård barely understood the titles of the books and it hadn’t taken him too long to convince the boy that he was useless when it came to academics. Neither Vegard nor Bård had given little more than minimum effort in high-school, passing classes, but not achieving any grades they could brag about. Vegard had, however, studied some physics when he got his pilot license, and Bård tried to use it to his advantage. Best make the two of them as valuable as they could get. Bård was pretty sure the books in front of him were way above average high-school level, so he didn’t feel too bad that he couldn’t help the kid with his chemistry homework. 

The only thing Bård had enjoyed doing and was good at when he was Daniel’s age was music and comedy. As neither of the two sitting on the floor felt particularly jolly, Bård managed to persuade the skinny boy to learn to play the guitar. He had even thrown in a long speech on how he got his first girlfriend because he played in a band, playing that very instrument. That was how he’d gotten his first kiss; it was summer, they sat outside in a park with some of her friends. They’d be drunk on wine her older sister had bought for them with a fake ID. They were fifteen at the time, and she’d worn a strapless summer dress. The wine had made him more confident than he usually was, so he’d shown off his guitar skills. The girls had all cheered him on, and after one song he’d just reached out and kissed her. She kissed him back. It was clumsy and wet, but still so very wonderful. Her friends had hooted and cheered them on. Bård and the girl had even stayed together for half a year. 

That story had made Daniel pay attention to him, and it hadn’t taken long before he came running back to his bedroom, guitar in hand, visibly excited. Bård wondered if Daniel had ever kissed a girl.

Talking to Daniel was peculiar at best, Bård felt like he was talking to a wall more often than not. Daniel seemed too involved in whatever he was doing to answer him most of the time, leaving Bård’s questions unanswered.

“So, are you an only child?” Bård asked as casually as he could as he showed the boy another grip before handing the guitar over to the kid. There hadn’t been other children there at the breakfast table. He eyed the small black remote peeking out of Daniel’s pocket, pretty sure that it wasn’t meant to control something like a stereo or radio. Best be careful.

“Yeah, now I am,” Daniel shrugged as he copied the grip with ease.

“What do you mean by that?” Bård pushed on as he took hold of the guitar again.

“I had an older sister, once. She died,” Daniel said casually. He kept his expression neutral like they were only discussing the weather. Bård wondered why, but he guessed after some time people didn’t get as affected when they talked about people close to them being dead. People always did say that time heal all wounds. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Bård said, trying his best to sound as compassionate as possible while still being casual about it. He showed Daniel a new grip. No reply, Daniel copied the grip while he intently stared at the wall in front of them instead of looking at Bård. Eye-contact with Daniel was a rare thing, Bård noted.

Bård took a deep breath, hoping his next statement would cause a bigger reaction. “You know, the guy I’m with is my older brother,” Bård said, trailing off. He wasn’t quite sure where he was going with it.

“I know. I know who you are,” Daniel said to the glass of lemonade standing next to him.

“You do?” Bård was surprised.

“Yeah.” Daniel took a sip of his glass, seemingly done talking about the topic.

Bård wasn’t giving up that easily. “Then you probably know that he is a far better musician than I,” Bård started, hoping that the boy would catch on quickly. “He could teach you all kinds of stuff, not only physics.” Best raise Vegard’s value as high as possible if Bård would ever succeed with his newly hatched plan. Or, it wasn’t so much of a plan as it was a sort of a strategy. 

“Maybe,” the boy said over the rim of his glass.

Bård groaned inwardly. Keeping a flowing conversation with the kid was as easy as running a marathon in bread dough. 

“I bet he would love teaching you. He likes the feeling of knowing stuff others don’t, and letting them know all about it,” Bård said to his untouched glass of lemonade. He was done trying to get eye contact with the strange kid. No reply, Bård was only handed back the guitar. “He can be a bit patronizing like that, but he always right about everything.”

Bård granted Daniel’s silent request and showed him another grip. Daniel copied him with ease. If he kept this pace up, he would be able to play a song on his own soon. The teenager was seemingly not going to give him anything of value in return for Bård’s efforts in teaching. Bård wished for the hundredth time that day that his older brother was there with him in the land of the living. It was just like Vegard to know how to handle the odd kid. The two of them would probably hit it right off. Vegard would’ve for sure known what to say and do and would’ve gotten them both out of the terrifying house days ago. Bård was usually the one of them who confronted others and wasn’t afraid of being up front with people at all. Dealing with people, normal people at least, was usually one of his strengths. Bård didn’t consider Daniel normal, not by a long shot. Vegard however always connected more easily to the quirkier ones, finding them fascinating rather than a tiresome burden. 

But Vegard had the magical ability to almost sedate people, making them feel calm and at peace and making them act friendly towards him. Vegard was, above all else, a kind man. He even took in stray animals from time to time because he felt too guilty leaving them at animal shelters. He owned four big cats as a result of that. He sometimes even admitted that he had trouble saying ‘no’ to people. Bård had often thought to himself that Vegard’s niceness was the sole reason why he was considered the lesser comedian and performer of the two of them. He was often than not stopping situations before they could develop into true golden TV moments, leading to more than one disagreement between them at work. Kindness could so easily be the death of any comedic situation.

He took the guitar from Daniel and played it, putting everything he had taught Daniel that afternoon into one song. It was _Nothing Else Matters_ , and Daniel openly stared at him for the first time. His eyes were small, red and set wide apart, making Bård associate his looks with a rat. Despite the redness, he had light blue eyes that screamed intelligence. They could easily be called beautiful had they been placed in a more attractive face. 

He was done fighting for information with nods and gentle prodding. It was time this kid knew who he was and who was truly in charge. No more guessing games. 

He put down his guitar on the floor and pushed it out of Daniel’s reach when he grabbed for it. The teenager looked directly at Bård for the second time within a minute. 

“How did your sister die?” Bård asked, not caring whether he sounded unfeeling or not. Daniel didn’t seem to care either way, so why should he? He just needed to know, needed to provoke some reaction, just something, out of the expressionless boy.

No answer. Bård almost wanted to slap him in the face. He felt his fingers tighten to fists, turning his fingers white. 

Daniel carefully lifted his head, staring at Bård. His red-rimmed eyes were stormy, and Bård was ready to fight that storm with all he had. It was a battle between two very stubborn minds, and Bård did not intend to lose. Bård almost didn’t notice his left hand rising from the floor, ready to give a well-placed punch in Daniel’s face. 

“She died in a car accident,” Daniel finally whispered, resigned. Bård’s hand dropped to the floor with an audible thud.  
It was as if someone had punched Bård hard in the stomach. He’d won, but the information flashed like a warning sign in his mind, making his small victory crumble like ashes in his mouth. 

“Oh, really?” he squeaked out, not intending to let his voice sound as frightened as it did.  
Bård gathered himself quickly, deciding to try to end the raging storm he’d started as soon as possible. Perhaps Daniel would respond to good old fashioned reason when he’d been in a situation Bård could potentially soon find frighteningly identical. 

“Look, I like my big brother. And I would like to keep liking him a bit more. But he needs help. Like, professional medical help.” Bård stopped himself before he went too far. Outing the words ‘or else…’ seemed abundant. He asked himself why he was so afraid of the short haired teen. Bård could’ve so easily have overpowered him, but here he was, almost visibly quivering in fear of what the boy would say or do to his pleading. He prayed that he had managed to make Vegard human enough in Daniel’s mind, hoping for any sign of empathy in the light blue-gray eyes. He watched as Daniel stirred, staring as the little black remote shifted along with Daniel’s movements.

“My mom used to be a nurse, but she’s not anymore. She got fired. She helped your brother; actually, she helped both of you when you got here. She borrowed some of your blood. She knew you were brothers, so she took a risk that you had the same blood type. You did, I checked. Blood types are very easy to determine. Check out your arm,” Daniel said quietly, seemingly on the verge of quiet aggression. There was a silent threat behind the words: appreciate when we’ve done, or else. 

No wonder why the woman was fired. Bård rolled up his sleeve and stared in amazement at the mark in the crook of his elbow. Daniel was right. He felt stupid; of course Vegard had needed a blood transfusion. The image of the branch impaling Vegard’s leg flashed through his mind. It had been dark then, but it had been clear as day that there had been a lot of blood. Too many questions ran through his brain, threatening to overwhelm him. It is hard to hold on to one single thought, the one chasing the other quickly away only to be replaced with the next all too soon. Bård felt dizzy and leaned back on the side of the bed.

“How did she get the equipment?” It sounded absurd even in his own ears. Out of all the questions he had come up with, that was the one he chose?

Daniel ignored him.

“More lemonade?” he asked, ignoring Bård’s obvious distress. Bård gaped at the boy like a fish, jaw almost dropping down to the floor. Daniel got up and left, after filling both glasses up with the now lukewarm beverage, leaving Bård alone in the bedroom. He heard no clicking noise indicating that the door was locked from the outside.

_I could get up and leave. I could run, get help. I could get out of here._

But something made him stay put.

_Vegard._

\--------

Calle watched as the wrecked car was lifted slowly out of the lake by a sturdy tow truck. The car was heavily dented; it was evident that it had taken quite the tumble down from the road. All its windows were broken. Standing outside was more than a little chilly, the temperature closing in on zero degrees; he felt cold and wrapped his thick skiing jacket closer around himself, chastising himself for not bringing woolen pants to go underneath his sweatpants. Vegard would have done it for him had he been there with him. It was beginning to get dark, and the temperature was dropping quickly. He tried not to think too much of here he could have been if he weren’t the best friend someone could ever ask for, warm in a pub eating a sizzling hot cheeseburger with extra bacon with crispy onion rings and a cold ale on the side. The frost was making the grass underneath his boots crunch under his feet as he stamped on it to try uselessly to keep his body heat up. Water was running out of Vegard’s old car, turning the pristine white snow underneath it to a sad grey color. The crew struggled to get the vehicle out and onto the road; they had already been at it for three hours. The car’s submerged position, pressed between a few trees and some smaller boulders made the process tiresome and time-consuming for them. Grass and sticks stuck to it, falling to the ground as the car hung from the chains of the truck. An ambulance stood parked next to it. Two paramedics hung around next to it, drinking coffee from thermoses, brightening up the area with their signal red uniforms. Calle wondered if coffee was standard medical equipment in all ambulances. They had all been there a long time already, waiting for the divers to find the bodies. The dead bodies of two of Calle’s best friends.

He felt his eyelids getting heavy. He just wanted the day to end, to see for himself that Bård and Vegard truly were dead before he too could go home. There was no way the two of them could be alive; the paramedics had assured them of that. The divers had found the car submerged in deep water. Even if they somehow had survived the crash itself, the cold water would have made them unable to swim long enough to get to the shore. They would have drowned within minutes, their bodies being paralyzed and they would, in the end, be forced to breathe in the grimy water from the lake into their lungs, killing them not even minutes later. That was also the most likely scenario, a paramedic reluctantly, but kindly told Magnus after he had asked one time too many why they couldn’t find their coworkers.

Calle couldn’t possibly just go home to the warmth of his bed in Oslo, leaving the two brothers behind in the cold black lake. It would have felt wrong to do so. He knew he was irrational, yet he stood there just the same. His friends would never know or care if he went home. The lake was big; it could take days before the divers found them. He imagined what they would look like. Bloated, probably. Cold, grey and bloated. Would he recognize them if he saw them like that? How long did it take before his friends would disintegrate and become part of the muddy sediment on the bottom of the lake?

Calle started to doubt whether they would be found at all. They had most likely already become the feast of a lifetime for the biggest fish swimming around there in the dark water. Calle pictured it so well in his mind; big, blind fish with pale scales nibbling eagerly away on his friends. He shuddered violently, tugging on the sleeves on his coat to cover his fingertips.

His train of thought was interrupted when the surface of the lake broke. A man in a black diving suit swam towards the rest of them, shaking his head, giving them a thumb down. Still no luck. Calle sighed.

A heavy arm settled around his shoulders, making Calle jump a little before leaning into the long arm behind him. It was Magnus’s. They both stood side by side gazing out on the landscape before them. Calle guessed that Magnus too would have agreed that the place would have been an excellent place for a fishing lodge if the circumstances they were there for hadn’t been so grim. Calle never took his eyes off the swimming man in the lake. He moved towards them, getting out of the water. Calle wanted to chase the man back out there immediately, not letting him in on the shore again before he found anything useful. 

One of the paramedics came over to them, giving them a sympathetic look. Calle could tell that the woman had practiced that look for years. It was the same woman that had told Magnus that his bosses and friends had likely perished in the crash. 

“We’ll be wrapping up soon. It’s getting too dark,” she said. “We’ll search again tomorrow. We will find them,” she assured them. Calle doubted her sincerity but didn’t say anything.

Magnus led him towards their car. They were the only ones left, the rest of the film crew had already returned to the cabin. They had all agreed that none of them would go back to Oslo, go back home before all of them could.

Calle stared at the bright moon. There was a glowing white ring around it. Tomorrow would bring snow. 

It was a sad Saturday night.


	6. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm taking forever. 6 chapters in, and I still haven’t gotten anywhere with this.  
> Unbetaed, and still boring as hell. 
> 
>  
> 
> Comments are always greatly appreciated, and I would like to thank everyone who has taken some of their time to leave a little thought on this... story on previous chapters. Thank you! :)

_It’s a wonder how the body can adapt and protect itself against unpleasant sensations,_ Bård mused as he entered his and Vegard’s shared bedroom. Hopefully, he wouldn’t consider it their bedroom for much longer. The sweet smell of his own vomit hit his nostrils hard, making his breakfast churn in his stomach. _I could hardly smell that when I left._ He glared at the offending bucket in the corner and rubbed his temples in resignation. Behind him, he heard the door being locked, and the heavy bookshelf being pushed back in place.

Vegard sat up, leaning his back against the headboard. A yawn threatened to tear his face in half. He looked if possible even worse than before Bård left. Not all could be signed off to not having even seen the sight of a washcloth in a couple of days. Not that Bård felt much cleaner, maybe even the opposite. His own straight hair had a tendency to look greasy much faster than Vegard’s dark curls did. No matter how bad Vegard appeared, the sounds he was making while trying to sit up made Bård question whether he soon would be familiar with how a lung would look peering out of his brother’s mouth. Bård’s breakfast tried to force its way back up his throat again, but he quickly swallowed it back down. 

“Hey, did I wake you?” Bård forced a smile on his face and pushed his still full glass of lemonade into Vegard’s trembling hands, nudging him to drink it. “Sorry about that.”

He watched as his brother greedily gulped down the lukewarm drink, even spilling some of the precious liquid onto his green shirt. Bard bit his cheek, letting his older brother at least keep the dignity of drinking by himself. He could almost see the heat radiating from Vegard in waves, reminding him of pavement on a warm summer day. He retained himself from touching him. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he grew more worried than he already was. There was so little he could do for Vegard anyway. He sat down on his bed and waited for Vegard to regain his breath after yet another coughing fit. There seemed to be no end of them. 

Bard inspected his PJ’s. The seams were uneven, and he began to suspect that their new pieces of clothing might have been homemade. _Who the hell makes home-made PJ’s in 2011?_

“Where were you?” Vegard asked, finally finished with his drink. It seemed to have revived him a little, making his eyes clearer and more lucid. 

“Huh?” Bård snapped out of his daze.

“I asked where you were. I woke up a bit earlier too, and you weren’t here,” Bård rose and took the empty glass from Vegard’s hands and put it on the floor before he sat down on his bed again. It gave him some time to think through what he was going to tell him and what he wanted to keep to himself. 

“Oh. Well, they gave me breakfast. And I taught this weird kid how to play some guitar,” Bård rubbed his face. He was beginning to tire, all the impressions and extreme emotions making a number on him. It was all building up inside him, the pressure almost too much. He wondered how much longer he could keep bearing the weight without bursting. He wanted nothing more than to go to sleep in his own bed back home in Oslo and not to leave it for an entire week. “It was even Metallica.” Bård wasn’t sure why he felt the need to share that last piece of information with Vegard. 

“Breakfast?” Vegard asked, frowning.

“Yeah. I don’t know what else to call it, it’s all so fucking weird. Nothing about this situation is normal, yet they all act like it is a perfectly average Sunday afternoon for them.” He was finally losing the little grasp he still might have had on his faltering composure. 

“Sunday?”

“Yes, Sunday. We’ve been stuck here for two days already, Vegard.” Bård sighed and rubbed his temples harder. It did nothing to ease his headache, but he kept rubbing them anyway just in case. 

“Oh.” Vegard studied the bizarre paintings on the walls, taking the new information in. “Well, they must know we’re missing then. It won’t be long before they find us, Bård. Don’t worry about it,” he said, leaning back and closing his eyes. 

“Don’t worry about it? How can you be so _naïve?_ We’re in the middle of nowhere, together with people that want to do God knows what with us, and they’ve even done this before!” Bård didn’t realize his voice had been rising until he was practically screaming. The burden of being responsible and the only one of them who knew the full extent of what happened in the car was suddenly too heavy to bear alone. It made Bård furious how the other man could just simply ignore what was happening to them. 

“Calm down, will you? Just calm down. We’ll be fine, I promise. Just please calm down,” Vegard pleaded as he started coughing again. The sound of it agitated Bård even more. 

“I am calm!” 

“No, you’re not. They’ll find us soon. They could already be on their way, right?” Vegard said, trying to get through to the sensible part of Bård’s chaotic brain. 

“You don’t know that,” Bård protested, his temper slowly softening. He pushed a greasy strand of hair back behind his ear. God, how he wished he could get properly clean in a warm shower.

“Yes I do! I crashed the damned car. They’ll find it and when there are no bodies in it they will realize we’re missing. And then what? Do you think they’ll go ‘Nah, no dead Ylvisåkers here, let’s wrap up and go home?’ You know better than that, Bård. Dead bodies don’t just get up and leave. Use your head for once in your life.” 

“Yeah, but... Two days,” Bård said, relenting. His older brother did have a point. Vegard’s convincement that they would get back home was just what he needed. It slowly calmed him down, although he knew Vegard only acted the tough guy for his sake. Vegard couldn’t possibly be so stupid to believe that they both would get out in whole, intact pieces. 

“Two days isn’t a lot.” 

“I guess you’re right.” 

“I’m always right. No point in arguing with me—“Vegard said smiling before being interrupted by another coughing fit. He was heaving for his breath before he was done. It was truly getting on Bård’s nerves. He was unused to worrying about others.

They sat there in silence for a while. Bård studied the various animals on the walls, and Vegard kept trying to get his breathing under control without ever fully succeeding. Bård listened for other noises from the house, but he couldn’t hear anything over Vegard’s loud, raspy breathing. The house was silent as the grave. It unnerved Bård a little, not sure if it was a good or a bad sign. 

“Do you really think that they believe we’re dead?” Vegard asked several minutes had gone by. 

“I don’t know. I guess. What else would they think?” Bård shrugged, too tired to get annoyed with his brother’s slightly morbid questions. He too had already wondered about it, but he had kept it to himself. 

“Not sure. Do you think mom and dad are planning our funerals by now?” Vegard winced a bit as he slowly turned over on his side. 

“I hope not. They can’t bury us if they haven’t found us dead yet. And I don’t want to be buried at all,” Bård said gloomily.

“What do you mean by that?” 

“I mean that I don’t want to be eaten by maggots. I don’t like the thought of lying in the ground, rotting away into nothing. Plus there have never been more dying people than there are now, so all the graveyards are already full. It’s just a question of simple logistics,” Bård said, keeping his voice cool and unaffected. The conversation was also beginning to amuse him a little. “Too few graves, too many dead bodies.”

“So if you died, and I lived, what would you like me to do with you?” _That’s not likely to happen as things are right now,_ Bård thought darkly as he studied Vegard’s pale face. 

“I’d like to be cremated. It’s fast, all you get back is this little cardboard box, and you can toss me in the sea or something afterwards. No muss, no fuss. Or use me as fertilizer for your pretty lawn, I don’t care,” Bård grinned. The morbid topic of conversation seemed to calm both of them down. 

“I don’t think that’s even legal,” Vegard laughed, and the wonderful noise cast a magic spell on Bård. The casual topic of it took Bård back home, back to old, fond memories. Sitting outside on a dock late at night. Naked feet were dipping into the slowly cooling seawater in late summer evenings. Surrealistic conversations slowly spinning into a brilliant ideas while sharing many fine bottles of wine. Vegard used to laugh just like that a lot back then. The sound of it was exactly the same. Some things never change. 

“Plus my lawn is a total mess. One of my cats keeps digging holes in it, and the weed is practically everywhere,” he mused with a faraway, happy look on his face. Bård swore Vegard too was back there in those precious moments with him, back to the nights where only the two of them and the crickets in the green grass were awake.

“Does it look like I care?” Bård laughed along, not caring about anything other than their small, temporary escape into familiar surroundings of the little dock outside their parent’s summer cabin. He never wanted to leave. 

Laughter could conquer even the scariest and most awkward moments there ever were. 

The brothers had both picked up on that returning home to Norway after their stay in Africa. 

“I wouldn’t want to keep you around on my mantelpiece, or anywhere else in my apartment for that matter, that’s for sure,” Vegard laughed. 

“I wouldn’t want that either if I were you.”

Bård wondered how it was possible that so few years of their childhood spent in another continent could affect them both so much. He remembered coming back, and how awkward every conversation with boys his own age had been. It was like they spoke a new, separate language he didn’t know even though he understood every word they said. He had been a foreigner in his own country. 

After a while he had taken to observing the others, learning the pattern of this new way of speaking and interacting in a group of kids. He learned the difference between cool bands and the lame ones, and went to see all the movies mentioned with his brother in tow. Bård thought he still had the small notepad where he secretly wrote down every word, expression and brand of jeans the others considered fashionable he had never even heard of before lying hidden away somewhere. But he realized one thing very quickly, and that was that he could always cover up every slip-up and every mistake by making the others laugh at him, and he would always laugh along together with them. He actively turned bad situations into happy moments. He became the class clown, and he made the others like him just a tad bit more. They quickly forgave him all his strange quirks and extreme nerdiness. 

Bård often thought proudly that he conquered ever obstacle he ever met, and nowadays just simply chose to be a bit dorky, adapting the lingering traits into his personality. 

“I’d like to--” Vegard began jokingly, and just like that the magical spell resting upon them broke into a thousand glittering pieces. 

“Stop that! I don’t even want to know,” Bård said a little too quickly. He felt like he had been dunked in ice water, shivers rapidly running through his body. He saw sparkling black spots in the periphery of his vision again. Vegard reminded him a little too much of a corpse for him to want to know. 

That maybe was one of the biggest differences between them; Vegard seldom knew exactly when he had taken a joke too far. Bård blamed Africa. Vegard didn’t bounce back as easily as Bård had done, never quite getting the hang of all the social codes and norms. He could still be amazed at how blunt and inappropriate his older brother could sometimes unknowingly be, often not realizing what he had said wrong when Bård called him out on it. 

“Okay.” Bård watched as his older brother swallowed, accepting and for once actually understanding Bård’s harshly voiced command. He suddenly felt a bit bad for Vegard. He didn’t feel like apologizing, but the silence between them wasn’t too uncomfortable. Vegard _understood._

Bård crawled further down under his covers, and listened the wheezy breathing coming from the other bed. Vegard’s harsh breaths made Bård compare them a clock, every breath was a tick closer to the moment where Bård would maybe regret not knowing what Vegard wanted it to be done to his dead body. 

_Tick, tock._

_Wheeze, wheeze._

_Tick, tock._

“Nothing is going to happen, you know,” Vegard finally whispered.

“I know,” Bård said lightheartedly. 

“We’ll be fine, even though it has been two days already.” 

“I know.”

“You know that I mean it, right?”

Bård swallowed, but he could see the sincerity clear as day in Vegard’s face. He truly believed that they would get out of the strange house, and Bård intended to keep it that way. 

“I know.”

_Tick, tock._

_Wheeze, wheeze._

_Tick, tock._

“Oh, by the way, you wouldn’t happen to know shit about a cat-crazed guy named Schrödinger?” 

_Tick, tock._

****

Days went past, and the searching party came no closer to finding the two missing brothers. The lake was searched from one end to the other, and there was nothing to be found. The filming crew went from being devastated to sad to angry and frustrated. Everyone wanted it all to be over, to get some closure, and first and foremost to go home. 

Calle was fascinated of how differently they all grieved. 

Some cried loudly. 

Some got angry. 

Some did nothing.

Some were in denial. 

Calle wished that he too could grieve like that for his friends, but he just couldn’t. 

Not yet. 

He needed to see them with his own eyes and he wouldn’t be completely certain they really were dead until he did. 

He just needed to be completely sure. 

Calle stood on the shore of the lake every day, waiting for the black creatures in the lake to give the thumbs up, for something to eventually happen. 

Nothing ever did. 

They all started to lose hope of ever finding them, and some of the parents in their small group started to leave for home. He couldn’t muster the energy to be mad at them. They had after all promised to stay until the end. 

Magnus always stood there next to him, both of them gazing out on the lake for hours at the time. They only went back to the cabin for food and a few hours of sleep every night. The two of them never spoke much. They just stood there watching over the abandoned area like in a trance. 

Watching and waiting. 

Or maybe they were just frozen. 

Frozen like the ground. 

Perhaps even frozen _to_ the ground. 

Piles upon piles of flowers and lit candles were left on the roadside where they had lost control of the car and slipped off the road and down the ditch. Friends, family, distant cousins, co-workers and fans all came to the remote place and paid their respects, all of them leaving small gifts. Magnus had even found a couple of worn teddy-bears left there for the brothers by some of their younger fans. The news of their deaths had leaked quickly to the media, and every single newspaper had made an article about them. Many had used it for their front page, two happy faces glowing towards Calle when he walked past them in the nearby gas-station he would get food from. He never bought any of them, but he saw their faces and was reminded of his abnormal and sickening lack of grief every time. 

Suddenly Calle turned around, breaking himself out of his frozen state, surprising even himself. 

“What’s going on?” Magnus asked. “It’s not even noon yet, there’s plenty of daylight still left.” 

“I’m going home. You’re coming with me,” Calle said, determined. 

“What? Why?”

“I’m getting my diver’s equipment. These people here are useless.” Calle marched up towards his parked car. The taller man quickly ran up next to him.

“Not following here, care to explain a little?” Magnus was confused by his colleague’s sudden decision. 

“I’m going to find them myself,” Calle said determined. He climbed into his car, and almost didn’t wait for Magnus to get into the seat next to him before he started driving the long way back to Oslo. 

“What if you actually find them, huh? What will happen then?” 

“Not sure.”

They drove in silence another half an hour.

“Peace. We will all get peace,” Calle said, turning to Magnus.

Magnus nodded, agreeing. “Peace would be nice.”

“I know.”

“I’m not really sure they are dead,” Magnus confided in Calle, bowing his head. Perhaps he was too frightened of his friend’s reaction to his bold statement. 

“Neither do I.”


End file.
